2021 NHRA Fuel Payouts (1 Viewer)

[Pete]

Being stolen from John Hale on FB

 

[Nunz]

It's great that Camping World stepped up to sponsor the series, but NHRA needs to find additional partners to bolster the fuel categories' purses. If the payouts from top to bottom were doubled, they still wouldn't be what they should, but they'd go a long way toward getting more cars to show up. That, and a huge U.S.Nationals payout combined with $1Million World Championship checks. This adds up to a lot of money, but in the big picture, it's chump change. There's an awful lot of money out there right now, NHRA needs to go find it.

 

[Jim]

It's great that Camping World stepped up to sponsor the series, but NHRA needs to find additional partners to bolster the fuel categories' purses. If the payouts from top to bottom were doubled, they still wouldn't be what they should, but they'd go a long way toward getting more cars to show up. That, and a huge U.S.Nationals payout combined with $1Million World Championship checks. This adds up to a lot of money, but in the big picture, it's chump change. There's an awful lot of money out there right now, NHRA needs to go find it.

Whenever I think of the disparity of financial risk/reward and exposure, I think of professional golf.
Never has so much been given to so few with so (relatively) few watching.
If it wasn't for the cost to rent their jets (I don't really know how many do so) to get to the event, it wouldn't cost a golf pro much to follow the circuit.....and yet, the sport continues to attract major sponsorship money. Compare that to Tim Wilkerson's (or Don Schumacher 's) budget!

 

[Jack]

Jim - Golf has tens of millions of hacks like me who play and support the game, A widely diverse demographic that goes from 6 to 86 yo and a multi billion dollar industry that exists around the sport, which appeals to a wide range of big dollar sponsors. Thats what fuels the payouts You have to earn your PGA card in order to compete in tournaments and that's a very grueling process to go thru, many excellent golfers never ever get a sniff of getting a tour card and competing on the regular tour. If you don't make the cut on Friday, you earn nothing for the week. The lower eshulon players with a card spend an average of 200k a season flying commercial or driving between events for their basic costs and that does not include the cost of coaches, caddies or bringing along anyone else in your family. The handful of prominent players do great but the lower level players Have to grind it out to survive and make a living.

 

[mick]

and now for a related, but still total detour from main topic.......taylormade did a one race deal with chad head/head racing at winternationals one year.
if i recall, chad either did not Q or was 1st rnd. loser. it was a one race deal, and a unique one at that.
if there are only 17 cars, i get it, the 18-20 Q money stays in the pot probably; but what if there are only 14-15 cars? does the last one or two first round loser money get added
to race payouts? or just stays in pot?

 

[Topfuel386]

Stays in the pot. This year they are rolling up into payout 19 and 20 qualifying money if those cars aren’t there but that is it.

 

[Jim]

Jim - Golf has tens of millions of hacks like me who play and support the game, A widely diverse demographic that goes from 6 to 86 yo and a multi billion dollar industry that exists around the sport, which appeals to a wide range of big dollar sponsors. Thats what fuels the payouts You have to earn your PGA card in order to compete in tournaments and that's a very grueling process to go thru, many excellent golfers never ever get a sniff of getting a tour card and competing on the regular tour. If you don't make the cut on Friday, you earn nothing for the week. The lower eshulon players with a card spend an average of 200k a season flying commercial or driving between events for their basic costs and that does not include the cost of coaches, caddies or bringing along anyone else in your family. The handful of prominent players do great but the lower level players Have to grind it out to survive and make a living.

Thanks John....You're right...It's not all "Tiger Money" for the guys who are chasing the dream.
I know that golf attracts a broader demographic but, I'd like to see the numbers.
Still, there's so much more overhead for a Pro race team. Takes a lot of $$ just to get that team from place-to-place every week.

 

[Luke Nieuwhof]

Thanks John....You're right...It's not all "Tiger Money" for the guys who are chasing the dream.
I know that golf attracts a broader demographic but, I'd like to see the numbers.
Still, there's so much more overhead for a Pro race team. Takes a lot of $$ just to get that team from place-to-place every week.

2017 Summernationals was a record at the time with 1.6m, I can’t see anything higher since in my quick googling - https://www.nhra.com/news/2017/nhra...ions-show-most-watched-broadcast-nhra-history

In comparison, the US Masters had 14m people watch the final round in 2015.
So their TV audience is enormously valuable. As also mentioned, the sport has more diversity than drag racing. Advertisers want to be able to change the behavior of the people they are advertising to, and boomers who are rusted-on to product choices are a difficult lot to do that with.

 

[Under_Pressure]

I have often thought of that dichotomy as well- in terms of money in the sport vs. barrier to entry, golf has got to be near the top. Which also, of course, means that it is unbelievably difficult and competitive to get to those levels where that money can be had.

Like any product, the value of a sport to sponsors it is worth what someone is willing to pay (based on perceived value), and not based on how much it costs to produce. Say you have a foot race and a formula 1 race on TV- both have a million people watching, and audience demographics are the same. On paper, each of those is worth the same amount of money to an advertiser, even though one costs almost nothing to stage while the other has a half billion dollars worth of equipment on the track, tons of support personnel and facilities, greater danger to participants, etc. None of which matters to an advertiser- they just know they are willing to pay x dollars for y eyeballs in z demographic, and don't really care what it takes for you to get them.

Golf is also somewhat unique in that a large proportion of the audience for the professional game actively participates in the sport, often quite seriously. And golf is an equipment-centric game. Thus, there is a huge incentive for equipment companies to get the best players to use/endorse their products. While the amount of equipment money being thrown around has cooled with golf's recent contraction and the withdrawal of Nike from the hardgoods segment, there are still millions and millions of dollars pumped into the sport from that alone. "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" still carries quite a bit of weight in the golf equipment world.

 

[camaro]

I've always been perplexed by Golfs popularity. It is very well sponsored with top line Advertisers, every tournament (PGA,LPGA, and seniors) event is televised on major networks and claims big ratings and the guy that comes in 50th place makes 75k ??? Yet in all my years, I've never witness this popularity in person . Every sports talk TV & radio show might spend 20 seconds, discussing the weekend results and internet sites might give it a line, way down in the 'other news' section, but that's it. I've never in all my life overheard or participated in a conversation about the pro Golf tournament over the weekend. Maybe i just don't get out much and just never run into a pro golf crowd, but based on its described popularity i would think i'd see more paraphernalia, magazine covers, bumper stickers, etc that keep pace with this popularity.

 

[Notch1320]

Come down here to So. Florida and you'll see how big golf is. I don't watch it on TV but when it's on my local sports bar is packed with golfers. I don't know the actual numbers but I remember reading somewhere that there's almost 100 golf courses in Palm Beach county.

 

[TSK]

I always tell my buddy, who thinks golf is more exciting than drag racing, that it only takes one ball to play golf.

 

[M Jones]

I've always been perplexed by Golfs popularity. It is very well sponsored with top line Advertisers, every tournament (PGA,LPGA, and seniors) event is televised on major networks and claims big ratings and the guy that comes in 50th place makes 75k ??? Yet in all my years, I've never witness this popularity in person . Every sports talk TV & radio show might spend 20 seconds, discussing the weekend results and internet sites might give it a line, way down in the 'other news' section, but that's it. I've never in all my life overheard or participated in a conversation about the pro Golf tournament over the weekend. Maybe i just don't get out much and just never run into a pro golf crowd, but based on its described popularity i would think i'd see more paraphernalia, magazine covers, bumper stickers, etc that keep pace with this popularity.

To get paid any money you have to make the cut, you have to practice 7 days a week just to have a shot at making the cut, and that’s after you do well enough in lower qualifying PGA tours, what any sport is worth tv ratings wise is directly affected by the numbers and interest of potential customers, TV made NASCAR what it is, gate money is a very small % of gross money brought in by most sports, just my understanding,

 

[Jack]

One other thing is the amount of tv exposure that pga golf receives. Almost every tournament played is televised from start to finish. Thursday and Friday are always on the golf channel for 5 hrs per day and on a major network on Saturday and Sunday for 3 to 4 hours - 16 plus hours of time for advertisers to get exposure. The 4 majors get more hrs than that and the major network's cover Thursday and Friday also. Any doubt about the popularity with the weekend golf warriors, try to get a Saturday or Sunday tee time at your local public course during the warm weather season. I don't even try, I just play once or twice during the week.

 

[M Jones]

One other thing is the amount of tv exposure that pga golf receives. Almost every tournament played is televised from start to finish. Thursday and Friday are always on the golf channel for 5 hrs per day and on a major network on Saturday and Sunday for 3 to 4 hours - 16 plus hours of time for advertisers to get exposure. The 4 majors get more hrs than that and the major network's cover Thursday and Friday also. Any doubt about the popularity with the weekend golf warriors, try to get a Saturday or Sunday tee time at your local public course during the warm weather season. I don't even try, I just play once or twice during the week.

Thanks, that’s also a very important part of the picture, the better NHRA tv exposure the better the sponsor potential and payouts

 

[mick]

don't forget about pga sirius radio channel

 

[stitcherbob]

Jim - Golf has tens of millions of hacks like me who play and support the game, A widely diverse demographic that goes from 6 to 86 yo and a multi billion dollar industry that exists around the sport, which appeals to a wide range of big dollar sponsors. Thats what fuels the payouts You have to earn your PGA card in order to compete in tournaments and that's a very grueling process to go thru, many excellent golfers never ever get a sniff of getting a tour card and competing on the regular tour. If you don't make the cut on Friday, you earn nothing for the week. The lower eshulon players with a card spend an average of 200k a season flying commercial or driving between events for their basic costs and that does not include the cost of coaches, caddies or bringing along anyone else in your family. The handful of prominent players do great but the lower level players Have to grind it out to survive and make a living.

 

[stitcherbob]

Whenever I think of the disparity of financial risk/reward and exposure, I think of professional golf.
Never has so much been given to so few with so (relatively) few watching.
If it wasn't for the cost to rent their jets (I don't really know how many do so) to get to the event, it wouldn't cost a golf pro much to follow the circuit.....and yet, the sport continues to attract major sponsorship money. Compare that to Tim Wilkerson's (or Don Schumacher 's) budget!

There was little danger in golf compared to nitro racing, but then Tiger had to go and disprove that yesterday.....

 

[*******]

It's a joke what NHRA pays out. We all do this for the fun and thrill out of our own pockets ( me included ). Don't fool yourself into thinking anybody is out there to race for the purse. All I would ask is that they treat us a little nicer and with some sort of respect. Never seen a business in my whole life that treats it's paying customers like they do. Especially our division.

 

[Frank]

It's a joke what NHRA pays out. We all do this for the fun and thrill out of our own pockets ( me included ). Don't fool yourself into thinking anybody is out there to race for the purse. All I would ask is that they treat us a little nicer and with some sort of respect. Never seen a business in my whole life that treats it's paying customers like they do. Especially our division.

Never?? Have you ever heard of Robinhood?